Note: Profiles of all nations are given with info on religious stats and
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Christian dating :
Lithuania
Geography
Area: 65,200 sq. km. (26,080 sq. mi.); about the size of West Virginia.
Cities: Capital--Vilnius (pop. 553,373); Kaunas (376,575);
Klaipeda (192,498); Siauliai (133,528); Panevezys (119,417).
Terrain: Lithuania's fertile, central lowland plains are separated by
hilly uplands created by glacial drift. A total of 758 rivers, many are
navigable, and 2,833 lakes cover the landscape. The coastline is 90 km.
(56 mi.) long. Land use--53% arable land, 30% forest and
woodland, 4% water, 13% other.
Climate: With four distinct seasons, the climate is humid continental,
with a moderating maritime influence from the Baltic Sea. January
temperatures average -5oC (23oF); July, 17oC
(63oF). Annual precipitation averages 62 centimeters (24.4
in.).
People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Lithuanian(s).
Population: 3.476 million.
Growth rate: -2.5%. Birth rate--9.1/1,000. Death rate--11.6/1,000.
Ethnic groups: Lithuanian 83.5%, Poles 6.7%, Russians 6.3%, Belarusians
1.2%, Ukrainians 0.7% Jews 0.1% others 1.5%.
Christian singles note-Religions: Catholic (70%), Orthodox (3%),
Protestant (1%), Old Believers (0.8%), Jewish (0.1%).
Language: Lithuanian. A minority speaks Russian and Polish.
Education: Years compulsory--9. Literacy--99%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--7.8/1,000. Life expectancy--66
yrs. male, 77 yrs. female.
Work force (2002, second quarter): 1.73 million: Manufacturing industry
18.3%; agriculture 17.1%; wholesale and retail trade 15.5%; construction
6.3%; transport 6.3%; public administration and defense 5.1%.
Government
Type: Parliamentary democracy.
Constitution: On October 25, 1992 Lithuanians ratified a new
constitution, which officially was signed on November 6 that year.
Branches: Executive--popularly elected president (chief of
state); prime minister (head of government). Legislative--Seimas
(parliament--141 members, 4-year term). Judicial--Constitutional
Court, Supreme Court, and Highest Administrative Court.
Administrative regions: 10 counties and 60 municipalities.
Principal political parties/coalitions: Labor Party--39 seats,
Conservative Party--25 seats, Social Democratic Party--20 seats, Liberal
and Center Union--18 seats, New Union--11 seats, Liberal Democratic
Party--10 seats, Union of Peasant and New Democracy Parties--10 seats,
Independent--6 seats, Polish Electoral Action--2 seats.
Suffrage: 18 years, universal.
General government budget (2002): $4.8 billion (exchange rate at the end
of 2002--3.4 Lt=$1).
Economy
GDP (2002): $14.9 billion.
Annual 2002 GDP growth: 6.7%.
GDP per capita: $4,296.
Deflation (2002): 1%.
Unemployment (2002): 10.9%.
Major sectors of the economy: Manufacturing 19.4%, wholesale and retail
trade 18%, transport and storage 9.2%.
Trade: Exports--$5.9 billion: mineral products 19.0%, textiles
and textile articles 15.0%; agricultural and food products 10.8%;
transport equipment 15.9%; machinery and mechanical appliances 9.9%;
wood and paper products 6.7%. Major export partners--Great
Britain 13.5%, Russia 12.1%, Germany 12.1%, Latvia 9.6%, Poland 3.6%. Imports--$8.3
billion: intermediate goods 55.9%, investment goods 18.6%, final
consumption goods 17.5%, passenger cars 7.2%. Major partners--Russia
20.2%, Germany 19%, Poland 6.4%, Denmark 4%.
GEOGRAPHY
The largest and most populous of the Baltic states, Lithuania is a
generally maritime country with 60 miles of sandy coastline, of which
only 24 miles face the open Baltic Sea. Lithuania's major warm-water
port of Klaipeda lies at the narrow mouth of Kursiu Gulf, a shallow
lagoon extending south to Kaliningrad. The Nemunas River and some of its
tributaries are used for internal shipping (In 2000, 89 inland ships
carried 900,000 tons of cargo, which is less than 1% of the total goods
traffic). Between 56.27 and 53.53 latitude and 20.56 and 26.50
longitude, Lithuania is glacially flat, except for morainic hills in the
western uplands and eastern highlands no higher than 300 meters. The
terrain is marked by numerous small lakes and swamps, and a mixed forest
zone covers 30% of the country.
The growing season lasts 169 days in the east and 202 days in the
west, with most farmland consisting of sandy- or clay-loam soils.
Limestone, clay, sand, and gravel are Lithuania's primary natural
resources, but the coastal shelf offers perhaps 10 million barrels'
worth of oil deposits, and the southeast could provide high yields of
iron ore and granite. According to some geographers, Lithuania's
capital, Vilnius, lies at the geographical center of Europe.
PEOPLE
Christian singles note-The earliest evidence of inhabitants in
present-day Lithuania dates back to 10,000 BC. Between 3,000-2,000 BC,
the cord-ware culture people spread over a vast region of eastern
Europe, between the Baltic Sea and the Vistula River in the west and the
Moscow-Kursk line in the east. Merging with the indigenous population,
they gave rise to the Balts, a distinct Indo-European ethnic group whose
descendants are the present-day Lithuanian and Latvian nations and the
now extinct Prussians. The name "Lietuva", or Lithuania, might
be derived from the word "lietava," for a small river, or
"lietus," meaning rain (or land of rain).
Lithuanians are neither Slavic nor Germanic, although the union with
Poland and Germanic and Russian colonization and settlement left
cultural and religious influences. This highly literate society places
strong emphasis upon education, which is free and compulsory until age
16. Most Lithuanians and ethnic Poles belong to the Roman Catholic
Church; Orthodoxy is the largest non-Catholic denomination.
Enduring several border changes, Soviet deportations, a massacre of
its Jewish population, and German and Polish repatriations during and
after WWII, Lithuania has maintained a fairly stable percentage of
ethnic Lithuanians (from 79.3% in 1959 to 83.5% in 2002). Lithuania's
citizenship law and constitution meet international and OSCE
[Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] standards,
guaranteeing universal human and civil rights.
The Lithuanian language still retains the original sound system and
morphological peculiarities of the prototypal Indo-European tongue and
therefore is fascinating for linguistic study. Between 400-600 AD, the
Lithuanian and Latvian languages split from the Eastern Baltic
(Prussian) language group, which subsequently became extinct. The first
known written Lithuanian text dates from a hymnal translation in 1545.
Written with the Latin alphabet, Lithuanian has been the official
language of Lithuania again since 1989. The Soviet era had imposed the
official use of Russian, so most Lithuanians speak Russian as a second
language while the resident Slavic populace generally speaks Russian or
Polish as a first language.
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